The outspoken Left-wing Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP was ditched as the Labour leader completed his ministerial reshuffle.

Abbott reportedly said: “I’ll live. These things happen.”

Just days ago she indicated she may seek to stand as Labour’s London mayoral candidate in 2016, saying: “Londoners don’t want a party hack”.

Meanwhile Nick Clegg moved today towards an election war footing against Home Secretary Theresa May with the appointment of outspoken Liberal Democrat Norman Baker to her department.

Speaking to The Standard, Mr Baker signalled his party’s aim to inject a “dose of liberalism” into the Home Office ahead of the 2015 election.

Mrs May, who was not consulted over Mr Baker’s appointment, was said to be “spitting tacks”.

Mr Baker insisted that if Mrs May seeks to sideline him or push an authoritarian agenda opposed by the Lib-Dems, he is ready for a fight.

“If some people in the Conservative Party are unhappy with my appointment, that perhaps suggests they are worried about a dose of liberalism entering the Home Office,” he said.

The Lewes MP added that he had had a “perfectly reasonable” conversation with Mrs May after his appointment despite her alleged anger at him being moved from the Department for Transport to the Home Office.

But he also emphasised that he believes Home Office decisions should not be “too harsh, unfeeling or unsympathetic” to the people they affect.

Conservatives were stunned at Mr Baker’s appointment and there were questions over how the security services would react to it given the book he wrote suggesting UN weapons inspector Dr David Kelly was murdered and that there had been a cover-up.

One senior Tory source branded Mr Baker as “one of life’s eccentrics” adding: “To send him to work for Theresa at the Home Office looks like an elaborate Lib-Dem in-joke.”

Mr Baker replaces Jeremy Browne, who is on the right of the Lib-Dems and was sacked in the reshuffle.

As a transport minister, Baker had good working relations with three Transport Secretaries, including Philip Hammond, Justine Greening and Patrick McLoughlin.